Back to school and the martial arts

Back to School and The Martial Arts

Going back to school can be an exciting and terrifying ordeal for kids. For 2 and a half months kids have been playing outdoors, getting sunburns, playing video games, watching countless hours of TV and hopefully doing a few chores along the way. Breaking the habit of getting up and going to school is far easier than getting back into it. Kids strive for structure even though they don’t think they need it. Martial arts provide a unique solution to keeping children and adults on track with the daily grind.

Routines are good for us all and without them our lives are thrown into chaos. Think about it, as adults we know, daily, where we need to be and at what time as well as what we need to do. Have you ever sat around on a Sunday thinking to yourself "I feel like I should be doing something"? Well you should be!  Relaxing. Our lives are filled with stress and we need an outlet. Kids are the same way. While your little one may be excited to get back to school and be with friends they are unknowingly harboring feelings of stress and anxiety that they do not know how to vocalize. Often times these feelings come out in negative ways through behaviour and acting out. By providing structure over the summer and especially during the back to school season you can alleviate some of these feelings and in turn limit the unwanted negative results. My solution to you...TAEKWONDO!

Martial arts are not your typical activity. We have no off season, no down time, no odd schedules and relatively lower cost per ca pita than other sports or activities. Most schools are open six days a week and provide a structure than includes physical and mental challenges that you can't find anywhere else. Through rank testing the child receives regular feedback, much like a report card in school, that relates to them how they are progressing. The only feedback from other sports is the amount of time on the bench. Martial arts teaches an individual approach to success rather than relying on others to get you to the championship game. No one can be held accountable but the student for his success or failure. Class time teaches the material and asks that the student does the homework and practices at home. 

Taekwondo class is also a great outlet for pent up energy that school cannot relieve. The kids have spent all summer being entertained and exhausted by bedtime, when school starts this ends. Now the days are filled with sitting in classrooms and hours of homework and maybe once or twice a week a gym class or recess. Kids need physical activity to stay healthy and to keep their minds sharp. Taekwondo offers both. Through training of techniques we generate coordination. Through the learning of forms we challenge the memory. Through difficult workouts we challenge the students spirit.  By asking them to be an example to others we teach responsibility for oneself. With all of these tools at a kids disposal and with proper guidance from parents and instructors kids have no choice but to succeed. Be a champion in life. Give a kid TAEKWONDO!

Mr. Morris

817-263-8080

www.wedgwoodtkd.com  

How to get the most out of taekwondo.

There are many different ideas on how to get the most benefits from training in martial arts. Some say to meditate for hours on end on one aspect of training while others suggest repetition is the key. While I agree that both of these methods have merit I think the most commonly overlooked aspect is your instructor.
If you practice a kick 10000 times you should be very good at it by the end, right? Maybe not. If you were taught wrong,  practiced wrong, and tested wrong chances are at the end you're doing it wrong. So no matter how much you practice or meditate that fact won't change without some intervention.
Success is driven equally by three factors: quality of instruction, quality of practice, and quality of mind.
What if one of those factors doesn't begin with high quality? In two cases that's an easy fix and for one a bit more complicated.
Let's start with the later, more complicated issue, quality of instruction. I say this is more complicated due the many factors that determine good or bad instruction. Good instruction begins with foundational knowledge. Like a building, a strong foundation must be in place to erect a strong building, without it the structure will surely crumble. After a strong foundation is established quality instruction will allow you to understand the "why's and what for's" A few questions to ask yourself about the quality of the instruction may be:
1. Does your teacher provide you with the basic knowledge to be successful?
2. Do they give clear and understandable explanations?
3. Does the instructor change things up to keep things interesting?
There are hundreds of scenarios we could discuss but in the end they all serve to answer a single question; do you trust your instructor? Now before you answer this question let's make sure that you honestly answered all the other ones first. What do I mean?
1. Does your teacher provide you with the basic knowledge to be successful? NO. Are you sure? A good teacher may leave information out in the hopes that you will in turn seek it. Do you participate by seeking more information and asking questions?
2. Do they give clear and understandable explanations? NO. Are you sure? Did you verify that other people didn't understand or was it just you? There are many reasons that someone may not understand an explanation or example. Sometimes the teacher uses poor word choice other times the student may have been distracted and misheard. Whatever the reason, before you answer this question with "no" make sure that others struggle with understanding as well.
3. Does the instructor change things up to keep things interesting? NO. Are you sure? How many times per week do you attend class? Is it possible that you just have bad luck and missed the days that he may have really spiced it up a bit? Ask around, if others are bored then chances are you didn't miss it.
So on to the most important question; Do you trust your instructor? If yes, then you have a strong foundation to build on.
Next are the seemingly less complicated quality of practice and quality of mind. If you have Quality of Instruction then these two go hand in hand a feed off of each other.
Quality of Mind is in essence your strength of spirit, your ability to stick to and complete a task, your willingness to approach a challenge and meet it head on. If your quality of mind is high then you  have the best opportunity to drive your quality of practice because you wont be satisfied with mediocrity.  
Quality of practice refers to the amount of time and effort put in outside of the dojang. Your time in the dojang is split between teaching and practicing. Teaching must happen before practice otherwise we have nothing TOO practice. In this case to get the most out you have to put the most in, not in quantity of course but in quality. Learn in the Dojang, and practice at home. By concentrating on quality of practice you in turn are training your Quality of Mind.
As you can see these two factors are not mutually exclusive but rather completely intertwined, like peas and carrots or Cagney and Lacy. Which brings us full circle back to quality of instruction. Your instructor should help guide you in your development of practice and mind. 
Unfortunately, and speaking as an instructor, class time is the worst time for development of these factors. Sure we can give you motivational speeches and sound advice and the drills and skills we show you are great for you to use at home, but on the surface they are generic and impersonal. What I may need to say to Johnny may not be what Jimmy needs to hear. And Paula may not have the same wants and desires as Penny.
Too get the most out of Taekwondo spend time with your instructor. The only way he can be personal is to be personal back. Private lessons offer the best of both worlds. This is a period of time where your instructor is just YOUR instructor. You can ask him questions or tell him your struggles and he can directly affect your Quality of Mind and Quality of Training in a way that may not be possible in a group of 20 other students. Seek out your instructor because he is the most valuable tool for you to get the most out of Taekwondo.

Welcome to the blog!

Welcome everyone!


I wanted to start a blog in order to share my thoughts with you the parents and students of Min Hur's TKD Fort Worth. From time to time I have things that I would like to share but don't have the time in class to do so. I hope to update this blog fairly regularly so keep an eye out. For now I will just say welcome and I hope you enjoy reading some of the things I have to share.